Using the "examined life" as the goal, Dr.

Samler examines the possibility of mental health programs in our schools and various ways of attaining self-understandingespecially through cognition.

JOSEPH SAMLER
Veterans Administration

The School and Self-Understanding*

The guidance process inevitably aims at self-understanding by the client, by definition a key aspect of mental health. This is a precondition for making mature choices; for the assumption of responsibility for self. This kind of learning, perhaps the most important in the world, must start before the individual attempts to relate himself to the working world. Its logical place is in the elementary school. This paper addresses itself to the problem, but does so pleading a special case: the greater use of cognitive techniques. What is the school's situation in fostering this self understanding? It is confronted with a most difficult job. On the one hand, the school is expected to prepare its inhabitants for the good life. Youth must become competent of course, in the ordinary sense of the term, but also should achieve a level of self-understanding, accept self and others, live with others in cooperation and trust rather than in suspicion, be concerned and helpful radier than competitive and cynical. On the other hand, there is the way to make a quick dollar. In this context Hutson (12) notes that the educative principle and the competitive principle so characteristic of our culture and economy cannot be reconciled. It is wonderful to have the world's goods in the supermarket, but there is a price to be paid for it and we are paying it, quite handsomely. There is no
* I am indebted to Eli M. Bower of the National Institute of Mental Health and John R. Lawson of the University of Maryland for the opportunity to discuss the ideas in this paper with them. This does not mean that Drs. Bower or Lawson necessarily endorse these ideas.

55

surcease offered here. The point is that in the schools alone we are not going to remake our culture. Not that we have not tried, but the number of such attempts is dishearteningly limited. A few years ago the Personnel and Guidance Journal sought to pull together noteworthy programs in mental health in the schools (2). Out of this reasonably thorough search it was possible to present only six reports: the programs at the Institute for Child Study at the University of Maryland, Ojemann's work at the State University of Iowa, Hall's description of his efforts at the Nebraska Human Resources Research Foundation, Moustakas' human relations seminar at the Merrill-Palmer School, John R. Seeley's "human relations classes" at Forest Hill Village, and the ambitious program of teacher education at the Bank Street College of Education. These and similar programs referred to, by Withall (35), for instance, are nearly all moving and even exciting programs. Yet the reason for what seems to be limited progress must reside in factors beyond budget. Of course there must be a phenomenal difference between teacher attention to the individuals in a class of thirty-two and, as has been found necessary in special education, in a class of ten or twelve. However, the idea of doubling or tripling the educational budget seems quite unrealistic. More important, there can be no assurance that teachers with such small classes automatically become desirable models. It may well be that money will buy more than the skeptic will allow, but even so, there are the limiting factors of the humanity with which teachers are endowed, their personal security, tolerance of differences among others, and their ability to inspire trust in others. Nor will a fancy establishment or a democratically run school counter the many hostile facets of our culture. Even a partial list of what goes on all around us is unnerving: cutthroat competition; not only absence of ethical behavior but absence also of indignation at the lack of ethical behavior; cynical disregard of the rights of others; gerrymandering; bribery and blackmail of public officials; separation of men and women from society under barbarous conditions when crimes are committed; a death and accident toll on the highways, largely preventable, that is unbelievable. In 1961, in the Fourth John Dewey address, Gardner Murphy (19) properly asked whether a teacher can teach rationality in such massive unreason as flourishes in our time. This is proper ground for despair and a possible proposal that the Lord start over again. However, there are some opposite signs. There is the response to the Peace Corps, for instance; the insistent civil rights program; and the constant, if painful, democratic process of correcting our own inequities. It is possible to take heart from these and to work in productive directions in the hope that to an extent we can redress the balance. One emphasis in some school mental health programs is on broadening the 56

The School and

Self-Understanding

HARVARD EDUCATIONAL REVIEW

teacher's understanding and increasing her personal security. Following another, children are taught to consider multiple motivation and behavior dynamics. In the process, there is a certain amount of practice in self-search. These are the goals also of those school counselors who tend to identify with the major movements in mental health. This is desirable and necessary and should be continued and expanded. However such programs are not widespread, nor is their number growing at a great rate. In this circumstance the imagination turns to additional possibilities. This is the burden of this paper. In a number of ways the school mental health program mirrors the formal therapeutic situation. In such a program, the relationship between student and teacher is characterized by trust. There is understanding and acceptance of the student by the teacher. It does not seem too much to say that transference is manifested, and, perhaps less obviously, also counter-transference. The major concern of the mental health worker in the schools is with the feeling life; and as self-understanding is fostered, the great discoveries and inventions of classical psychoanalysis come into play. In following the therapeutic model, in focusing on the feeling life, in seeking really to restructure personality, the program follows the classic psychoanalytic formulation of basic motivation. This is a view which amply supports the existence of profound unconscious elements in personality and the pre-eminence of drive, need, personality defense, and sublimation in the organization and maintenance of behavior. The minimal influence of cognition, if indeed it is influence at all, is clear in Freud's teaching. In his view, the ego is the agent of the id, the blind and primitive pleasure-seeking drive, and is designed to further the aims of the id. The ego's energy and power are derived from the id's great demanding impulses and has no viability of its own. This is the classic view, and it prevails in many settings. For instance, even the Neo-Freudians subordinate cognitive ego functions to the need for the emotional experience. Fromm-Reichmann's statement (6) is characteristic: Working through should be continued until the time is reached when the intellectual understanding of the problem, of its previously dissociated causes, and of its various interlocking mental and emotional ramifications is gradually transformed into real creative emotional insights. Granting what theory and experience indicate, and taking into account that this may be only a cry of pain, a defense against the more arduous enterprise, something else may be possible. A new line of thinking has emerged in the analytic field and in more orthodox psychology. It is doubtful that these developments are taken into account sufficiently in mental health work in the schools.

57

A NEW EMPHASIS: COGNITION

It is now almost two decades since Hartmann, Kris, and Lowenstein (9) offered a revolutionary reappraisal of Freudian personality typology. The idea that the ego is not an agent of primitive pleasure-seeking drives, but has energy and vitality of its own made it possible to emerge with new conceptions, led to change in emphasis and technique in the therapeutic relationship, and, initiated the alert and self-conscious movement in ego psychology. The theorists who have emphasized cognition include Schachtel (30) who urges the influence of man's search for meaning in life, Heider (10) and Hartmann (8) who call attention to the influence of intention, as does Allport (1). Also cited by Allport are Wallas, who includes an "instinct of thought" in man's motives, and Bartlett and Cantrill as regarding man's search for meaning as perhaps the ultimate motive in life. Starting with Schachtel's ideas, Neisser's (22) examination of childhood amnesia led him to question the concept of repression and to look for an answer in the discontinuities in cognitive functioning which accompany growth into adulthood. Thus conceived, childhood amnesia is amenable to quite a different kind of treatment than is now available. McGuire (18) starts his syllogistic analysis of cognitive relationships by pointing out that the idea of the "rational man, long out of style, is now undergoing a remarkable revival." He refers to an impressive list of theoretical and experimental approaches referring variously to "tendency toward balance," (Heider), "balanced structure," (Cartwright and Harary) "balanced matrices," (Abelson and Rosenberg) "stress toward symmetry," (Newcomb), and most recently, "cognitive dissonance." (Festinger) Although it must be searched for, there is clinical literature which illustrates a therapeutic approach utilizing strong cognitive elements. This is the technique that Dollard and Miller (3) follow in their discussion of "discrimination." Similarly Monroe (17) presents the case of Mrs. S., who for example, is asked productively by the therapist whether she had heard of a particular psychological theory. In Thorne's (34) eclectic volume, the last 124 pages are devoted to the problem of maximizing intellectual orientation. Lakin Phillips (27) denies the need for a concept of unconscious motivation and works with his clients in terms of their conscious awareness and understanding. On the face of it, his method is therapy using cognition as the major vehicle. The reiterated work of Albert Ellis (4) probably is well known. Less well known is a paper by Betty Ganzhorn (7) and one by the present writer (28) on using the client's available resources, including cognition, much more than we now do. As can be seen there is no tidal wave of cognitive approaches. Nevertheless there is a clear direction, reiter58

The School and

Self-Understanding

HARVARD EDUCATIONAL REVIEW

ated by observers, researchers and clinicians, toward the use of intellectual understanding. The theoretical proposals and the clinical instances are intended to buttress the point that increasing attention is being paid to cognitive approaches and techniques in fostering personality growth. Can the schools travel this road? What can the schools do?
T H E SCHOOL, COGNITION, AND SELF-UNDERSTANDING

It seems strange to say that the school should look to rationality and cognition in fulfilling its purposes. This is, almost by definition, the school's stock in trade. However, our prevalent counseling philosophies, i.e., Rogerian and the watered down elements of psychoanalysis, run counter to use of rationality and cognition. What can the schools do? They can continue and extend present forward looking practices. As teachers learn to use the six-area framework of the University of Maryland Institute for Child Study, their view of children will become more objective and understanding. The teacher-in-training exposed to Moustakas' seminars stands a very good chance of coming out a more secure person with greater maturity than before, and, therefore, should be a better teacher. The twelve-year-old in Ojemann's University School should come out of his exposures innoculated against black and white judgments and aware of some of the underlying motives for behavior. The goal of these and similar programs is "the examined life," a phrase that Socrates 2500 years ago fortunately did not copyright. The examination of one's own motives or the motives of others in the mental health programs and texts is one aspect of Socrates' great teaching. There are ways in which this can become a most important enterprisewhat, in man's condition, is more important?but not before the school becomes committed to such examination as in itself desirable and necessary. It is pointless to take the schools to task; it is too easy and popular an exercise anyway. Yet with respect to guidance people, it is to be noted that Shoben (31) felt that the nonfacilitation of an active search for values among students, an aspect of his view of the examined life, constitutes a failure of guidance and the school. So many have written so movingly about the experience of coming out of the dark that it seems pointless to repeat what by now is in modern folklore. Although the climb is endless, the view is increasingly breathtaking. In more mundane fashion, therapists say that there are deeper and deeper levels of understanding. This climb is the goal. Its end is always beyond our reach. What are some of the techniques possible within the school which would enable the student to see this goal in a cognitive framework? 59

Teaching the Dynamics of Behavior There is nothing at all new in such an idea. Ojemann (23) has done it handsomely for a decade and a half and bolstered it with the backbreaking task of rewriting the texts used in the Iowa University School so that they mirror, for instance, multi-values and many faceted motivations. Increasingly, first year college courses in psychology are seeping into the high schools. The stream should become wider, deeper, and more powerful. If two conditions are met, it does not really matter what philosophy is advocated by teacher or discussion leader. The chief consideration is whether the rationale provided (e.g., learning theory of one or another persuasion, ego psychology, neo-behaviorism, analytic psychology of the Freudian or Adlerian variety, or any other) offers clarifying concepts. The point is that whatever the rationale, it should help the student to observe and follow his own behavior and as he feels it necessary and possible, attempt to intercept and change it. The conditions to be met are: first, that this kind of investigation by teacher and students be moved out of the 32 pupil class into the 10 to 12 member discussion group. The reason is no doubt too obvious to belabor, but basically flows out of the second condition: that development of these ideas start with, or are, as quickly as possible, made pertinent to the individual in the group, This is essential here since what is to be learned must arise from and be integrated in one's own living. The term "cognitive" is capable of carrying such sterile connotations as to negate what is here intended. While this is not group therapy, it is not barren intellectualizing either. Just as the central nervous system cannot operate independently of the autonomic nervous system, so intelligence and cognition, to have validity, must take into account the rich life of feeling. However, if pupils' private feelings are to be discussed, there will be charges of intrusion of privacy. The school will be charged with meddling in the family and all the old sanctities will be raised. This will receive attention at a further point. Of course, such a program is easier to talk about than to carry out, but the saying does provide a map. At least the direction is clear if one wants to go that way. Even so, the proposal to teach behavior dynamics is so general that a specific example will be useful. If I were to lead such a group, I would use Sullivanian concepts as a framework for the reason that they have been clarifying and exceedingly useful in my need to understand my own sometimes unhappy behavior, and to make progress in intercepting it. Also, in my own teaching which is at the University level, these ideas have been exciting to communicate and also quite clearly useful to students. I refer specifically to the central concept of anxiety
60

The School and

Self-Understanding

HARVARD EDUCATIONAL REVIEW

and the self-system which as it happens comes complete with directions for recognition of clues. The Control of Behavior The Freudian revolution presented us with the containment of impulse, id-based, as a central and necessary direction for behavior of man in society. Perhaps as part of the foundation for the emergence of ego psychology, perhaps in reaction to the extreme view of man as moved by blind and primitive libidinal needs and wishes, a number of observers, among them Maslow (16), make a case for impulse gratification as against control. The very strong probability is that the two are synergetic. Gardner Murphy (20) says it movingly and beautifully. . . . the nurture of rationality may perhaps lie in other efforts than the sheer encouragement of rational thought; indeed, that the rational may best continue to grow in the instinctive soil in which it was engendered, and that too clear and sterile a surgical separation of thought from its ancestral and parental roots in love and impulse may threaten its viability. And if this should by any chance be true, it would mean that the learner must not be deprived of the riches of his impulse-life, and that the teacher must be a quickener of that impulse-life through which thought can grow, indeed a shaper and molder of the impulse into the rationality which comes from a healthy craving for contact with reality. Perhaps we can abandon both extremes, the control of impulse and, soto speak, its gratification, in a mode of living that utilizes various degrees of control, depending upon the situation and its meaning. However, in evaluating when feelings are to be subordinated, there is a need for some reference point. While I can provide no ready and precise arithmetic and while I know that what is offered is capable of distortion, I suggest simply, that feelings are to be controlled when, if expressed, others would suffer undeservedly. An example out of our current difficulties in living with each other may make the intention clear. A man says that no matter how much he is urged in church and elsewhere, he cannot bring himself to like Negroes, much less love them. This is not the issue at the moment, which is that he behave decently. The issue is as simple as that. The example is intended to highlight a class of instances in which native feelings are to be subordinated, suppressed, held in check. They are not to be an excuse for inability to behave decently to others. Proper behavior should become a set of expectations and part of the role of being human. These expectations should be as taken for granted and in a way beyond question as are the ordinary roles of being male or female. The difficulty, of course, is determining what is desirable and under 61

what conditions. In the example given, the matter is clear-cut, but ordinarily there will be many problems. This approach in no way supplants the more basic responsibility of looking into ourselves and coming to terms in positive ways with the disaster and hate in us that results in inimical behavior to others. What is urged perhaps is second best, but if so, it is second best to a wonderful ideal. In its own terms, it is important to note that as behavior is adopted and practiced, its associations and rewards should reinforce it and in time affect feelings.

T H E EXPLICIT SUPPORT OF VALUES

Subordination of feelings and control of behavior can be seen as a value. If, as I hope, this is not immediately abhorrent, the idea can be carried further to the point of identifying a number of values which guidance personnel in the schools should support in working with their school clients. The issue of support of given values by the school is not really for discussion. It is clear that as a social institution, the school's values are not only implicit in the function it performs, but explicit in the communications made to students, parents, and the general public. By virtue of its being, the school says education is important; one should be educated. One should be responsible, studious, clean, neat, courteous, outgoing, cooperative. Present rewards should be foregone for future goals. Counselors in the schools may be ready to grant this since it is well nigh indisputable, but may point out that in their professional role they cannot and may not deliberately or subtly push the particulars of any values. There is no space to develop this great problem. From prior consideration of at least some of its facets, a number of statements can be made. Three of these are safe and can be documented but the fourth is arguable. (1) There is no task, including research in the hard sciences, that is not value inflected. (2) Values are communicated in ways other than in formal language. Very specifically and despite professions to the contrary, counseling has a value system built into it. (3) Since values, with or without counselor awareness, will be communicated to the counseling client, the counselor should become aware of them. (4) Since by virtue of the counseling task, the particular relationship, and the presumable goals to be achieved, there will be stress on some values and at least implicit derogation of others, agreement might be reached on at least specified values to be supported. The problem may seem less sacrilegious if it is stipulated at the outset that no large charter will be drawn. No attempt will be made to rewrite the ten
62

The School and

Self-Understanding

HARVARD EDUCATIONAL REVIEW

commandments. Instead, perhaps agreement can be reached on a minimum number of values to be supported and we can agree also about such values that they will be regarded as capable of having exceptions to their general applicability. What can be accepted? Surely we can agree that there is virtue to the examined life. T o an extent this is capable of influencing thought and action. Since the organism is unitary, it seems not unlikely that one accepted value will lead to another. The need for thoughtful self examination, not self review, seems to lead to a need to review what has become a fetish with us, the jealousy of privacy. It seems hazardous to argue against privacy. However, the point is that we have too much rather than too little privacy. This does not mean that the bathroom door should not be locked but rather that we must construct in Schachtel's and Dorothy Lee's terms the open self as against the closed self. The cult of privatism has need for the fences to be up and in good repair, for the self to be well guarded. The opposite is urged. What are all the dreadful secrets anyway except evidence of our humanity? Openness can be hewed to as a value to work toward, to say how one feels, to be spontaneous, and to identify what one is uneasy about. Of course, there are limits that ordinary sensitivity will supply. This beginning list is not intended to start an inventory of values. Probably I am sufficiently foolish to offer such a list, but the emphasis here is on values that can be taught in reasonably cognitive ways. It is readily possible to list the presumably desirable values, for instance, those that Jahoda (14) reports as meeting substantial agreement in the form of attributes of positive mental health. It is difficult to see, however, how maturity, self-acceptance, cooperativeness, responsibility, and others can in effect be taught. Rather they seem subject to learning from models, from proper experiences with others, from experiencing physical and psychological safety rather than from expectations set before one. It may be, of course, that ingenious teachers, perhaps building on a psychology of implicit expectations can devise means of fostering agreed upon values in these areas. For the present, it is proposed that specified values be suported affirmatively and without apology. These are the examined life, openness, and the control of feelings when their expression leads to inimical behavior. That it may make very good sense to hew to absolutes is indicated by Farnsworth (5) in discussing the problem of premarital sexual intercourse among college students. A short time ago a president of a women's college asked me, just for the purpose of focussing over our ideas, "Is premarital sexual intercourse always wrong?" and I said "Yes." This surprised her somewhat, because psychiatrists are not supposed to employ terms that carry value judgments. We argued it back and forth a good deal, and she 63

backed me into a corner several times, but my final defense was, "If you exhibit uncertainty or ambivalence on this question, then you are faced with the task of making decisions as to when it is right and when it is wrong." I said I prefer to take the viewpoint that if college students are found to be having intercourse, that's understandable. It's been going on for as long as there have been colleges. We do not condemn them, but we do not confuse them by saying that what they did was right. Rather, the college maintains the ideal standard of society in general, even though it is not adhered to by large segments of society. The idea exists, and it is the job of those of us who work with students not to pass judgment, not to moralize, but to help them live up to the idea.

If this can be done, values, as John E. Smith (32) indicates, can be made to stand as the referent points for decisions and action. This should be quite clear from the example given concerning feelings and behavior with respect to Negroes. It is not impossible that a whole set of unhappy and inimical behaviors can be intercepted and changed through reference to given guidelines. In the loosening of religious precepts and in the inevitable changes in the times we have lost a set of guidelines for behavior and living. This is as it should be. But, in fact, in these complex times, a vacuum has been created probably just when we could least afford it. Something must take its place and no doubt something will. Hopefully, whatever it is, it will move us away rather than toward Walden II. The cry for guiding principles, evolved by ourselves, although by no means popular, is yet not a cry in the wilderness. Although the setting is in higher education, it is not inappropriate to hear George Stern, whose work on differential college cultures is well known, on the problem of student needs (33). The excitement of ideas and discussion which I once found at Chicago as an undergraduate, I have re-discovered in some of my own classes today. But the challenge of abstractions, principles, and values in these current instances has been aroused not by intellectualism but by inter-personalism. Students today seem interested in interpersonal behavior, the analysis of motivation, and the problems of dealing effectively and with decency in human relations. Any material placed in this context arouses a depth and intensity of response which belies the apathy and privation encountered elsewhere. But there is another aspect to this problem. For many of the students in today's college classrooms, the ability to participate even under the circumstances just described seems severely limited by a deeply ingrained fear of introspection, self expression, and departure from stereotyped views. Above all, they fear the consequences of personal freedom and seek security in dependence and conformity.

64

The School and

Self-Understanding

HARVARD EDUCATIONAL REVIEW

ON THE EXAMINED LIFE*

The examined life has been cited as a value but requires more detailed attention. As a goal, as a commitment, its hold on man is ages old and has been attested to by great souls in all times. In countless generations past, this task had to be done intuitively, or only in the autumn of life; in our time there is a methodology for progress toward it. How can the school reinforce or help to bring it about? In addition to specific procedures, and in the same way that it emphasizes good citizenship in many school settings, it can maintain search and awareness of self as a general education goal. Since available subject-matter texts do not generally have this type of orientation, teachers will provide their own adaptations if only they are convinced of the validity of the problem and its potential contribution. Of course, to do this they must know what they are about. This should be one of the school's leitmotifs. In this area there are quite specific teachings that the school can provide and learnings that it can foster.

MAINTAINING SELF-RECORDS

The initial work in the maintenance of behavior logs, of others, but not self, is reported by Prescott (26) and by Peck and Prescott (25). This is part of an ambitious program in teacher-training at the University of Maryland Institute for Child Study which, however, is addressed to adults. Data on the usefulness and contribution of the program is presented in reference 13. Briefly, the observer learns to view and record behavior objectively and in specific detail. As nearly as it is possible to do so, he becomes a camera eye and recording ear. He becomes aware of the distorting effect of interjecting his own values and predispositions in noting behavior. This is the critically important first stage. After a sufficient number of such samples of behavior are gathered, characteristic behavior is identified and interpreted.** Two departures are proposed for consideration in adapting this type of
* It is taken for granted that by definition counselors are in the business of helping students in examination of their motives, assessing the energy and weight behind each, and seeing them as a pattern. T h e counselor's job is to assist the student, i.e., to use the pat phrase, to achieve degrees of self-understanding. This is the purpose of psychological testing, and the way in which occupational information should be utilized. Counseling interviews should serve precisely the same purpose. It is on the basis of self-understanding that choices should be made, as a result of weighing of alternatives. For each available choice, information is considered in terms of probable outcome and importance to the individual according to his own needs and his own development. ** No doubt there are related approaches elsewhere. For instance, Richard Jones' (15) report of his own work but on a preparatory school level is for attention. T h e Institute for Child Study program should stand as an example only of what is possible.

65

methodology for the schools. First, the records to be maintained are self records, not observation records of others. In some respects, this makes the task easier; in others difficulties arise. It is less threatening to observe others since the self is not immediately involved. The walls do not go up automatically, the fences are not immediately charged with electricity. Corrections in method by the observer are capable of being accepted without considerable ego involvement. This is even more pertinent when data are to be pulled together for interpretation. On the other hand, the individual, as his own subject, is always available. This is a greater advantage than might be granted at first thought. Although they may be hidden and distorted, the all-important areas of feelings, fears, embarrassments, guilts, gratifications, unhappinesses, satisfactions, at best inferred from observation of others, are here at hand. Little work has been done in the maintenance of self-records, although in a way all self-study proposals require keeping notes of some kind. Horney's system (11) requires keeping track of free associations, and involves developing a shorthand system for quick notations. In the context of the need for training in self-study, Dollard and Miller (3) note that this may seem a laborious amount of training to inflict upon a child and go on to make a useful point: We think, however, that this kind of training would not have to be invoked very long before the child would begin to get the hang of it. For all we know, it might be as easy to learn as the multiplication table. We have no doubt that however strange such training may seem at the present time it will sometime be part of the repertory of human culture. The mind of the child could be trained to deal with such problems if the home and the school were able to train it. Much that has later to be done by exhausting treatment of adults might be taught mass-wise at elementary levels. Both parent and elementary-school teacher must eventually learn to train children to use their minds in solving emotional problems. As adults, such children would then naturally have recourse to self-study when they were faced with bothersome problems. Elsewhere, the present writer (29) has called attention to other literature in this area including Peck's study which showed that with minimum help, the untrained individual can make notable progress toward greater insight into his own behavior. In a six-month self-record aimed at identifying anxiety and the related security operations, his subjects, under Peck's guidance, presented courageous personal material. They began to see their characteristic patterns of behavior and made appropriate inferences concerning their living. T o a limited extent, the present writer has used Peck's method with occasional 66

The School and

Self-Understanding

HARVARD EDUCATIONAL REVIEW

students in mental hygiene classes. A brief excerpt from Peck's research (24) may illustrate the self-observation record: There are one or two people in my section who previously annoyed me because of overbearing attitudes which resulted in any number of people being embarrassed by these two individuals at different times (this annoyed me even when it was not directed at me, because in my being witness to such). This particular young lady seemed to be completely satisfied once she had made some sarcastic retort. (I believe it was my subconscious awareness of my duplication of such actions in my own relation to my sisterthat I was getting too much of a "kick" out of being sarcastic that I had become aware of its implications.) Her actions no longer annoy me and I found myself injecting a few remarks into her conversation with another recently, which went something like this: "Millie, I hope you don't think like you talk as far as real feelings are concerned. I believe it is from your mouth out and I conclude your bark is worse than the bite." She laughed as she walked toward my desk and said "You sound like the only person around here who understands me." The second departure is that these records will be maintained by school pupils. Although at present lower age limits can only be guessed at, the method probably ought not to be tried with children below junior high school age. If the basic idea is tenable, these limits can be established in standard experimental fashion. The specter of privatism might just as well be faced since it is, in any case, abroad. The fearful must defend their fears and we shall have to do the best we can, which now and again may not be very much. Ideally, a program of self-records or any program in this area might have its origin in discussion at teacher and PTA groups. School personnel and parents should grow together in understanding and acceptance of this type of program. The strong threats that drawing the shades have, in terms of what one's fancy fears might be exposed, must be taken into account.

T H E INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

The very use of these words may raise hackles. The beads of sweat may rise at the idea of so personal, difficult, and disconcerting a task. The idea may be too difficult, require too much skill on the part of those who attempt to impart it, and require too much to be learned by those who attempt to learn. The idea may be a very poor one; friends with whom it has been discussed shake their heads very doubtfully, but it ought to be considered. It does not necessarily mean that dreams will be produced and interpreted in the group situation. It could mean that the mode of understanding one's dreams might be taught. After all, it is a skill in understanding; many have been taught the 67

skill and have demonstrated that they can become quite good at it and that understandings gained have been very useful to them, sometimes phenomenally so. Other than to indicate that there are a number of major contributions in this area of experience, e.g., Bonime's The Clinical Use of Dreams, and Diamond's popular book The Science of Dreams, it does not seem fruitful to enter discussion of this fertile area for man's understanding of himself. If this area is explored in a school setting it will require competence of a type that needs no list of titles of books for assistance. It is not proposed that the curriculum be made to include a course with the title of this brief subsection. Such material properly belongs in a framework which includes various aspects of self. Since dreams, like examination of anxiety-loaded behavior, can be a road to self understanding, this section might properly have been included in the notes on teaching the dynamics of behavior. It has been separated in order to highlight it. Nevertheless, the vehicle for self exploration is at hand in quite a few schools in the formal psychology courses and less formal group discussions of human behavior, personality, or understanding.

O N MONEY AND SKILLS

Friends who have seen this material have asked, even granting the pertinence of some points, who is going to provide the instruction and who will pay the bills? The answers are not comfortable, but they are simple enough. Such a program will cost money. But money is easier to come by than comfort. It is not really a problem. If we want this kind of program badly enough, we will provide the money. What we need to start with is the interest and conviction; ways to finance it will be found. The problem of finding skilled instructors is in part related to budget. However, such a program should be very attractive to concerned workers who see little profit in ameliorative and curative procedures. The school can follow the example of other concerned groups in a time of competition for scarce skills and train selected faculty for the new roles they are to play. It can also call on mental health personnel even though they are in a very short supply, because this is precisely how scarce personnel should be used, where greatest influence can be exercised.

REFERENCES

1. Allport, G. W. Pattern and Growth in Personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1961, p. 223. 2. Basic Approaches to Mental Health in the Schools. Reprint Series from the 68

The School and

Self-Understanding

HARVARD EDUCATIONAL REVIEW

3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9.

10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

18.

19. 20.

Personnel and Guidance Journal. American Personnel and Guidance Association, Washington, D.C., 1959. Dollard, J. and Miller, N. E. Personality and Psychotherapy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1950. Ellis, Albert. "Rational Psychotherapy." J. Gen. Psychol., 1959, 35-49. Farnsworth, Dana. "The Need for a Comprehensive Mental Health Program: Accent on Prevention," in Higher Education and Mental Health, Proceedins of a Conference, Gainesville, Fla., The University of Florida, Sept. 25-26, 1963, p. 71. Fromm-Reichmann, Frieda. Principles of Intensive Psychotherapy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1950, p. 95. Ganzhorn, Betty. "A Cognitive Point of View in Counseling College Students," J. of College Student Personnel, March, 1962, 126-129. Hartmann, Heinz. Essays in Ego Psychology. New York: International Universities Press, 1964, p. 173. Hartmann, H., Kris, E., and Lowenstein, R. M. "Comments on the Formation of the Psychic Structure," in The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, Vol. II. New York: International Universities Press, 1946, p. 19. Heider, Fritz. The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1958, p. 111. Horney, Karen. Self Analysis. New York: Norton, 1942. Hutson, P. W. The Guidance Function in Education. New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts, 1958. Institute for Child Study, The University of Maryland. A Report to the Grant Foundation. April, 1958 (Mimeo.). Jahoda, Marie. Current Concepts of Positive Mental Health. Monograph Series No. 1, Joint Commission on Mental Health. New York: Basic Books, 1958. Jones, R. M. "The Role of Self-Knowledge in the Educative Process," Harvard Educational Review, 1962, 32, 200-209. Maslow, A. H. Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper & Bros., 1954. Monroe, R. L. "Intellectualizing Techniques in Psychotherapy," in Case Studies in Counseling and Psychotherapy, Burton, Arthur, (ed.) Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1959. McGuire, W. J. "A Syllogistic Analysis of Cognitive Relationships," in Attitude Organization and Change, Yale Studies in Attitude and Communication, Vol. 3 Hoveland, C. I. & Rosenberg, M. J. (eds.) New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960, p. 65. Murphy, Gardner. Freeing Intelligence Through Teaching. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1961. , Freeing Intelligence Through Teaching. New York: Harper & Brothers,
1961, p. 22.

21. Murray, H. A. and Kluckhohn, C. "Outline of a Conception of Personality," in Personality in Nature, Society, and Culture. Kluckhohn, C., Murray, H. A. and Schneider, D. M. (ed.). 2nd ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953, p. 40. 22. Neisser, Ulric. "Cultural and Cognitive Discontinuity," in Anthropology and Human Behavior. Gladwin, T. and Sturtevant, W. C. (eds.) Weshington, D.C.: The Anthropological Society of Washington, 1962. 23. Ojemann, R. J., et al. "The Effect of a 'Causal' Teacher-Training Program and

69

24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.

34. 35.

Certain Curricular Changes on Grade School Children." J. Exp. Educ. 1955, 2, 95-114. Peck, Bernard. Effect of Self-Observation upon Self-Awareness: an Exploratory Study. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Maryland, 1957. Peck, B. and Prescott, D. A. "The Program at the Institute for Child Study, the University of Maryland." Personnel Guidance J., 1958, 2, 114-122. Prescott, D. The Child in the Educative Process. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957. Phillips, E. D. Psychotherapy: A Modern Theory and Practice. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice-Hall, 1956. Samler, Joseph. "An Examination of Client Strength and Counselor Responsibility." J. Counsel. Psychol., 1962, 9, 5-11. , "Basic Approaches to Mental Health: An Attempt at Synthesis." Personnel Guid. J. 1959, 37, 639-643. Schachtel, Ernest C. Metamorphosis. New York: Basic Books, 1959. Shoben, E.J. "Guidance: Remedial Function or Social Reconstruction?" Harvard Ed. Rev., 32, 4, 430-443. Smith, John E. Value Convictions and Higher Education. New Haven: The Edward W. Hagen Foundation, 1958. Stern, George. "Student Values & Their Relationship to the College Environment," in Research on College Students. The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, Boulder, and the Center for Higher Education, Berkeley. Dec., 1960, p. 103. Thorne, F. C. Principles of Personality Counseling. Brandon, Vt. J. Clinical Psychol., 1950. Withall, John. "Mental Health in the Classroom," J. Teacher Education, 1964, 2, 193-199.

70

This article has been reprinted with permission of the Harvard Educational Review (ISSN 0017-8055) for personal use only. Posting on a public website or on a listserv is not allowed. Any other use, print or electronic, will require written permission from the Review. You may subscribe to HER at www.harvardeducationalreview.org. HER is published quarterly by the Harvard Education Publishing Group, 8 Story Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, tel. 617-4953432. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.